Interior decorator&#39;s cabinet with slidable racks



June 22, 1955 G. F. FIELDEN 3,190,712

INTERIOR DECORAI'ORS CAB INET WITH SLIDABLE RACKS Filed June 14, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheetl Fig.2

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June 22, 1965 G. F. FIELDEN INTERIOR DECORATOR'S CABINET WITH SLIDABLE RACKS Filed June 14, 1962 tLLlLELkMLELL United States Patent Office 3,199,712 Patented June 22, 1965 3,190,712 INTERIOR DECQRATORS CABENET WITH SLEDABLE RACKS Georgia F. Fielden, E. Iiijou St, Colorado Springs, (3010. Filed June 14, 1962;, Ser. No. 202,566 2 Claims. (Cl. 312-311) This invention relates, broadly classified, to certain new and useful improvements in door and drawer-equipped cabinets and has reference, more particularly, toa structurally and functionally designed studio-type cabinet construction which is expressly, but not necessarily, equipped and adapted to effectually serve the purposes and daily working needs of interior decorators, designers, home decor consultants, craftsmen and their assistants.

As will be evident from the foregoing general statement of the invention the herein disclosed adaptation is such in construction that it also lends itself to practical adoption and use by architects, fashion designers, milliners, stores having to do with upholstering and floor covering services, and wherever compartmental article storing cabinet structures are customarily used for displaying, planning, estimating and for similar customer-serving purposes.

Persons conversant with work requirements in an upto-date and busy decorators studio are repeatedly reminded of the painstaking duties involved when handling countless samples, swatches, swatch books, and various other paraphernalia and the confusion and time involved in keeping tab on the items removed and subsequently, often haphazardly replaced. Not only this, one is confronted with the constantly recurring problem of keeping samples up to date, this being a matter of major concern to all involved in the business of decorating and analogous arts and crafts. It follows that, the instant concept has to be with a practical solution of the problem; namely, the provision of a simple, practical, economical structurally unique cabinet having systematized facilities coordinated in a novel environmental association and arrangement. Briefly, the preferred embodiment here disclosed is characterized by a cabinet having a top section and a bottom section therebeneath, each section provided with at least one compartment. Both compartments have openable and closable fronts equipped with doors, preferably doors which are decorative and attractive. At least one compartment, say the top one, for example is provided with extensible and retractable members which constitute receding racks, each having a multiplicity of accessible hanger hooks to accommodatingly support fabric swatches or wallpaper sample books which when not in use are temporarily stored out of sight in the compartment provided therefor. Usually these swatches and samples are removably suspended by a so-called bulldog clip hung on the selected :hook. The construction and arrangement of available facilities herein employed is such that large fabric samples can be handled and replaced on a hook without removing the clip, whereby to thus expedite the users sample handling duties.

It is within the purview of the invention to use the receding hook-equipped racks or rails in both upper and lower compartments and to so construct and slidingly mount the same that they may be completely withdrawn from their positions of use in order to use the entire space for insertable drawers or to otherwise employ it for storage of large books of wallpaper samples.

The rails are roller-mounted in associated fixed horizontal tracks, have finger-holes at their outer or leading ends, are usually made of wood and are such in cross-section that hanger hooks are provided on both lengthwise or vertical sides effectually arranged for ready access, and positioned so that each hook can be numbered or otherwise marked or designated. Thus with each railtype rack, numbered hooks, cross-reference card and catalog facilities, the user can keep an orderly hand on her work requirements. In fact, information pertaining to each sample can be catalogued in keeping with its location and under its company name, thus enabling the user to keep things straight and systematic and save valuable time and labor. As will be later and more clearly revealed, the top section of the cabinet is designed to accommodate small fabric swatch books or small sample books. The bottom section of the cabinet is designed to accommodate large fabric swatches, or with the pullout rails omitted, it provides storage space for large wallpaper books.

. The invention also features top and bottom sections with their respective storage compartments, a fixed outstanding ledge or shelf at the juncture of the two sections, a novel arrangement of doors and drawers, and shelves which slide in and out in a ractical and convenient manner with each of the components or parts contributing a well chosen share in achieving highly satisfactory results.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective of an interior decorators cabinet featuring slidingly mounted racks, draw ers and complemental component parts in keeping with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective sented and on a larger scale and with doors of upper and lower sections swung open to expose the projectable and retractable racks and other features;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the construction and arrangement depicted in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged view with pants in section and elevation and portions broken away and which is taken on the plane of the vertical section line 4-4 of FIGURE 1 looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 5 is a view in section and elevation fragmentarily drawn and on a large scale and showing an open front portion of one storage compartment and more particularly the construction and arrangement of the outer end of one of the sliding racks;

' FIGURE 6 is a View similar to FIGURE 5 but showing the other end portion of the compartment and the inner or rear end portion of the rack;

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on view fragmentarily prethe plane of the line 77 of FIGURE 5 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIGURE 8 is a similar view but which is taken on the plane of the vertical section line 88 of FIGURE 6.

To provide a more satisfactory background and to ac quaint the reader with aspects of the concept which should be noted here and also in conjunction with the following description of the details, attention is directed to the fact that the exterior design can be changed to fit any decor or style by way of the outside folding doors. The views of the drawings show the cabinet to be of modern design with alternating louver-type and solid or imperforate folding doors, brass legs and contemporary brass cabinet pulls,(not detailed). For a French or a provincial design, the cabinet doors could be changed to doors of brass grille over shirred fabric or could be solid doors with French moldings applied. Provincial legs could be used. For a traditional or eighteenth century piece, mahogany would be used. The folding cabinet doors would be of English panels with traditional legs and hardware used. Thus the cabinet is suitable for any style studio.

The assemblage may be made up of campanion modular units or sections. As the need arises other sections can be added to existing ones.

Referring now to the drawings it will be evident that the horizontally elongated lower part of the cabinet structure (the latter considered as an entity) is designated as a lower or bottom section A and the companion upper or top section is denoted at B. As illustrated in FIGURE 1, two units which are normally disposed in abutting engagement are shown in spaced relation and thereby provide two top sections B and two bottom sections A thus making it easier to handle and install the cabinet as compared to a single long cabinet. Each section is of elongated form and is made up of duplicate components each of which is basically the same. Each section or unit may have any multiple of doors and the size of each unit may vary. By abutting the units in end to end engagement, the cabinet has the appearance of a single cabinet of unitary structure. The units may be connected to each other by bolts or the like (not shown) if desired and the doors are hinged with the hinges recessed in such a manner to enable the doors to swing to an open position. This aspect of the matter is perhaps more easily understood by considering FIG. 4 in conjunction with FIGS. 1 and 2. With particular reference to FIG. 4 it should be noted that the numeral designates a storage compartment which is defined by horizontal top and bottom walls 12 and 14, a back wall 15, vertical end walls 18 and wherein the open front is closable by hingedly mounted folding door means including, for example, the solid panel door 20 and the complemental louver-type doors 22 and 24 hingedly joined to each other at 25. Upper portions of the frames of the doors 22 and 24 are provided with elongated or blocklike fingergrips or integral wooden pulls 26 which have their inner ends spaced apart as shown, for example, at the extreme left in FIG. 1 to permit convenient access to be had to the lower depending edge portion 28 (FIG. 4) at the bottom of the front panel 38 of the slidingly mounted drawer 32. This drawer as illustrated in FIG. 4 is confined in a housing which is defined by the drawer support rails or equivalent members 34 and the horizontal top member which is here conveniently described as a ledge-like counter or shelf and denoted at 36. The end portions 38 of this counter terminate flush with the vertical doors and front of the drawers. The drawer housing is also constructed in the upper portion thereof to accommodate fixed stop means (a strip member or strip members) as designated at 40 and which limits the inward sliding movement of the drawer 32 as shown in FIG. 4. Beneath the counter and at suitably longitudinally spaced points transverse guide rails 42 are suitably mounted to support the slidable panel 44 which provides a movable shelf, that is, an extensible and retractable panel-type shelf (sometimes referred to as a tray) and having a projecting outer end 46 with finger-grip means. Suitable supporting legs or feet are provided beneath the bottom 14 as denoted at 48. Thus, the component of the section A so far described comprises the walled open front cabinet 10, hinged door means 20, a sliding drawer 32 in a plane above the top wall 12 of the compartment, the counter 36 and the sliding shelf 44 which is in line with and overlies the open top of the drawer 32. In practice the inner surfaces of the sides of the drawer can be vertically notched to accommodate horizontal dividers for the storage or filing of wood and finish samples. The storage space 10 is also designed and adapted so that the underneath of the top wall 12 is provided with a projectable and retractable rack 58 which can he slid in and out as shown at the bottom portion of FIG. 2. This rack and mounting thereof will be described in greater particularity when taking up and describing the correspondingly constructed racks existing in the compartment (or compartments) of the upper section B.

Referring now to the upper section B and with reference in particular to FIGS. 1 to 4, inclusive, and especially FIG. 4, it will be evident that like the lower section A, this section B is rectangular in cross-section and is generally hollow and is of a cross-section less than the crosssection of A with its bottom mounted atop the counter 3-6, with its rear coplanar with the rear of A and its forward part spaced from the lengthwise edge 52 to provide the available stationary shelf space. With reference again to the single compartment theme the compartment in this instance is denoted by the numeral 54 and embodies a bottom frame 56, top wall 58, vertical end walls 60 and a back wall 62. The door means comprises the several doors 64, 66 and '68, the latter being a solid panel and hinged at 69 and the other two doors being of the slatted or louvered type. The interior surface of the door (or doors) will be provided with a magnetizable cleat 63 which is lined up with and attracted to a fixedly mounted suitably constructed permanent magnet 65 which serves to keep the doors closed. A horizontal partition 70 in the lower part of the compartment provides a housing (pocket or space) for the slidingly mounted drawer 71 which drawer (or drawers) has a notched front wall 72 which facilitates catching hold of the drawer and moving it in and out and also permits inspection of articles (not shown) contained in the drawer as evident in FIG. 2. Also, the wider drawers 32 and drawers 71 may he provided with a longitudinal divider 33 received in suitable notches.

One or more projectable and reetractable racks is provided in the compartment and the single rack shown in FIG. 4 is denoted generally by the numeral 73. This rack (and also the aforementioned rack 50) comprises an elongated wooden or equivalent rail 74 of requisite length and cross-section having left and right vertical sides 76 provided with suitably numbered (not detailed) hanger hooks. The L-shaped hooks 78 may be diagonally pitched as shown in phantom lines in top plan in FIG. 3. Similar L-shaped hooks 80 are provided on the left and right side surfaces of the pull-out rail 50, both rails provided at outer ends with finger holes 82 to facilitate operation thereof. All of the rails are mounted in the manner shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, inclusive. With reference to these views for details it will be seen that a horizontal track 84 which is channel-shaped in cross-section is provided and the web 86 (FIG. 8) is screwed or otherwise fastened at 88 to the underneath side of the supporting wall. The spaced parallel depending flanges 90 are transversely curved to provide trackways for the intervening track means 92 (FIGS. 7 and 8) mounted atop the upper or supporting edge of the slidable rail. As shown in FIG. 7, nylon or equivalent anti-friction and suspension rollers 94 are mounted on the web portion and cooperate with the flanges 90 and also with the correspondingly constructed flanges 96 on the track means 92 of the rail. The rollers 94 are at the open end portion of the compartment as shown in FIG. 5. At the rearward or inner end portion the roller arrangement is slightly different in that the rollers here (FIG. 8) are mounted for idling on extensions 98 on the track means, the rollers being denoted at 100 and operating between the coacting inner and outer flanges 96 and 90, respectively. By having the rollers 100 mounted on the slidable rail and the rollers 94 mounted on the track means 84 the latter rollers serve as limit stops and check the outward sliding movement of the rail so that it will not be pulled completely out unless desired for some purposeful reason. For example, one may desire to eliminate the slidable racks in the lower compartments 10 to give more room if desired.

It should be noted that the hook-equipped racks or rails (any suitable number that may be desired for each compartment) are such that they may be individually numbered for ready identification. Also, there is sufiicient area provided by the vertical side surfaces 76 to accommodate reference numbers or equivalent indicia to assist one in systematizing the hanging or suspension of fabric swatches, wallpaper sample books, and various display items or articles commonly needed by the interior designer or other user of the cabinet facilities.

As will be evident no elfort is herein being made to enter a detailed description of precisely what items are to be stored or suspended by the user for the reason that diflerent users may resort to only those procedural steps as would be aptly suited to their individual needs.

It is believed that a careful consideration of the specification in conjunction with the views of the drawings and the invention as claimed will enable the reader to obtain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the subject matter of the invention as well as the features and advantages attending the same. Therefore, a more extended description is regarded as unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to these skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. In a cabinet constructionv of the class described, a cabinet selection embodying at least one storage compartment open at its front and provided with door means, that portion of said section directly above the compartment having an open fnont drawer housing with a sliding drawer therein, said drawer housing having a horizontal top wall, a horizontal panel slidingly mounted in the housing above the open top of the drawer and independently slidable and providing a shelf, a surface portion of said top wall providing a ledge-like fixed shelf and thus providing the user with fixed and movable shelves, track means mounted in an upper portion of said compartment, and a hookequipped rack slidable in the track means, said door means comprising hingedly mounted folding doors having spaced blocks mounted on upper outwardly disposed surfaces, said blocks being coplanar, aligned and having inner ends which are spaced apart, said drawer having a front panel with a central lower edge portion bridging the space between the inner spaced ends of the blocks and being ac cessible for fingergripping needs.

2. The structure defined in claim 1, and wherein said rack comprises a rail which is provided with broad flat left and-right surfaces, the hook means comprising rows of L-shaped hooks wherein the hooks are secured to lower edge portions of the respective board surfaces whereby the areas of the surfaces above the plane of the hooks are unobstructedly available for reception of hook designating and distinguishing number or equivalent identification indicia.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 365,125 1/87 Holzhalb 211-94 769,024 8/04 Ryan 21194 992,105 5/ 11 Batts 21 1-94 1,975,779 10/34 Church 312-324 X 2,606,666 8/52 Gray 211-113 2,985,311 5/61 Abel 312-345 X FOREIGN PATENTS 554,686 2/57 Belgium.

904,065 2/ France. 1,031,869 3/53 France.

151,676 9/20 Great Britain.

699,600 11/53 Great Britain.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A CABINET CONSTRUCTION OF THE CLASS DESCRIBED, A CABINET SELECTION EMBODYING AT LEAST ONE STORAGE COMPARTMENT OPEN AT ITS FRONT AND PROVIDED WITH DOOR MEANS, THAT PORTION OF SAID SECTION DIRECTLY ABOVE THE COMPARTMENT HAVING AN OPENING FRONT DRAWER HOUSING WITH A SLIDING DRAWER THEREIN, SAID DRAWER HOUSING HAVING A HORIZONTAL TOP WALL, A HORIZONTAL PANEL SLIDINGLY MOUNTED IN THE HOUSING ABOVE THE OPEN TOP OF THE DRAWER AND INDEPENDENTLY SLIDABLE AND PROVIDING A SHELF, A SURFACE PORTION OF SAID TOP WALL PROVIDING A LEDGE-LIKE SHELF AND THUS PROVIDING THE USER WITH FIXED AND MOVABLE SHELVES, TRACK MEANS MOUNTED IN AN UPPER PORTION OF SAID COMPARTMENT, AND A HOOKEQUIPPED RACK SLIDABLE IN THE TRACK MEANS, SAID DOOR MEANS 